1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card settlement method and system using a mobile information terminal, more particularly relates to a card settlement method and system capable of wirelessly settling a purchase price or a usage price by using a mobile information terminal capable of a read/write operation with respect to an integrated circuit (IC) card.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, the most popular methods of cashless settlement of a charge incurred when a customer uses a business establishment (purchase price, dining charge, service usage charge, etc.) have been credit cards and debit cards. Credit cards are used for credit sales offered through the cooperation of business establishments, credit card companies, and banks and are issued to persons judged to have sufficient ability to pay by check or sufficient bank balances. When settling a charge by using a credit card, a magnetic strip of the credit card is swiped through a settlement terminal provided in the business establishment, that is, a computer assisted transaction (CAT) terminal, and the settlement information is sent to the credit card company.
A credit card is not directly linked with the customer's bank account, so the CAT terminal inquires at the authorization center of the credit card if the usage of the card of the user can be authorized (sends magnetic information). The authorization center decides from the information whether or not to authorize the use. The authorization center confirms the content of the magnetic information read from the credit card and checks if the card number is on a customer blacklist or if the limit of the card usage has been exceeded so as to prevent misuse. If this check reveals there is no problem in the credit card, the authorization center returns an authorization to the CAT terminal. Twenty to 50 days after usage of the credit card, an account statement is sent to the customer. The customer then either writes a check for all or part of the billed amount or the sum is automatically withdrawn from his or her bank account.
In this way, in settlement by a credit card, credit-worthy customers are allowed to pay for all or part of charges by check or through automatic deduction from his or her bank account 20 to 50 days from the date of usage at the business establishments. In recent years, a card system has also been developed for persons having low or no credit. In this “debit card” system, the charge is settled immediately or within two or three days. The debit card is linked with the host computer of the customer's bank through the network of a credit card company. Since the debit card is directly linked with the customer's bank account, the charge is deducted from the actually available funds in the account at the spot where the charge was incurred.
Such credit cards and debit cards, however, generally use magnetic strips to business establishment the information required for the settlement, so there was no means for dealing with card misuse resulting from illicit acquisition of the magnetic data by third parties or tampering with the data on the magnetic strips.
To solve this problem, tamper-proof IC cards having a far greater storage capacity than magnetic strip cards and preventing the information in the card from being viewed have started to appear. An IC card is a plastic card in which a IC chip is embedded and is referred to as a “smart card” in the West. An IC card basically includes a built-in central processing unit (CPU), read only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), etc. Input/output of information to/from the memory is managed by the CPU. The IC card is protected by a personal identification number (PIN) known only to the user, so misuse by third parties is prevented. Further, there is also an IC card further improved in security by using bioinformation such as fingerprints, voiceprints, and retina prints as the authorizing means in place of a PIN.
However, the spread of such IC cards require installation of terminals equipped with IC card reading functions in a large number of business establishments. This is tremendously expensive. The installation cost of IC card readers has therefore been a factor obstructing the spread of IC cards.